Beauty industry goes digital. Fırat Turan, graduate of IUE Department of Computer Engineering, and Murat Yaşar, graduate of IUE Department of Mathematics, brought over 65 beauty enterprises in Izmir such as beauty salons and hairdressers, etc. together under a mobile application they developed and named “Vigo”. Those, who download the app on their device, keep a tap on the latest beauty trends, and get an online appointment from a beauty enterprise they want. Ekrem Demirtaş, President of IUE Board of Trustees, visited Turan and Yaşar at their booth at Izmir University of Economics and supported them.
Fırat Turan gave information about the app, and he said, “We aim to carry the beauty industry enterprises over to the digital platform. Beauty is one of the most needed industries; however, there are problems in bringing customers together with the enterprises. Enterprises try to advertise either by putting ads on their shop windows or give ads on websites. With Vigo, we allowed enterprises to advertise about themselves. Customers find information about enterprises, price ranges, employees, their previous professions, etc. They can get an online appointment whenever they want. We wanted to bring this industry to the light.”
‘Reaching out to overseas’
Turan said that they carried out their project within IUE Technology Transfer Office at Izmir Science Park, and they were able to reach out to 65 enterprises in 3 months. He said that they also developed software for Android and iOS, and created vigorandevu.com website. “We plan to make people’s lives easier and manage their time better. Customers are informed about latest trends. They can get online appointments. They can rate the enterprise or make comments after their appointment,” said Turan. He also said that they wanted to expand this service in Istanbul and Ankara, and hope to expand it abroad.
